Friday, February 5, 2016
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Totalitarian state?
Middle School Book Club read the first book of the Shadow Children - should lead to an interesting discussion covering everything from junk food to totalitarian governments!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Don't Blink
It's springtime in Minnesota, an incredible fast forward. Whoosh! the snow is finally gone. Pop! the tulips are six inches high. Honk! the geese are flying around everywhere, the redwing blackbirds are back, and it's finally warm enough to have windows open. I love it.
Friday, April 8, 2011
You Can Teach an Old Librarian New Tricks
You can teach old dog new tricks, but did you know that an old librarian can learn new tricks, too?
A patron asked if we could occasionally put up a list of newer videos. I thought that was a great idea, and decided to give it a try. After all, how hard could it be? I remembered that our library catalog lets you sort out videos, so that’s where I began. Just to see if it would work, I simply typed dvd in the keyword search, and limited the search to the Litchfield collection. Incredibly, this simple search was all I needed to do. (I remembered this all as being more difficult). I had 1161 dvd titles. They happened to be sorted with the newest titles first.
I decided to try making a list with a book cart, which lets you save titles and request them all at once. I clicked on the little icon that looks like a shopping cart. I added the 26 newest titles to my cart; unfortunately, you have to click on each title to add it to the cart. I clicked on view saved titles, and then chose “view and export your saved records.” The result is the information in the citation and even by choosing “brief records,” there was more information given than I needed.
The next step was to get that information into something that I could use. This wasn’t difficult, but it took some time to pare the pages and pages of catalog information down to a usable list. I sent the list to the local disk, which put it into Notepad. I copied that into Word and started deleting. Again, this was not a difficult thing to do, but it took some time, so I’m very happy to share the list with you, and may be persuaded to generate another list - in another three months.
Then there was a second new thing I learned this week. (I know, this is getting to be a lot.) Our library webpage is in transition. We’re grateful to the Litchfield Chamber of Commerce for putting a link to the catalog on their webpage of information about the library. Just go to litch.com/library and click on Litchfield Public Library. Our hours, phone number, fax number and email address are all on the page. We’re sorry for the inconvenience caused by this transition.
The next problem to solve was where to post a library article so my fans (just joking) can read it online. I revived my old blog at blogspot, http://janp23things.blogspot.com/ to have a spot to stash articles. Occasionally I update it with pithy comments, but I have learned once again that I’m really not a blogger.
That’s three things, more than enough for a week. See you at the library!
The List of movies with 2011 in the catalog citation:
127 hours
30 for 30.
The best that never was
Bambi
Black swan
Dogtooth
Downton Abbey
Elmo's World: Penguins and friends
Felicity : an American girl adventure
Howl
Inside job
Journey through the shadows
Complete guide to slowpitch softball [book and dvd]
Secretariat
Skin
Tangled
The Fighter
The Social Network
The Ten Commandments
The Wiggles: Let's eat!
Tintinalli's emergency medicine [book and dvd]
Tron: legacy
VeggieTales: 'Twas the night before Easter
Waste land
Women without men
Yogi Bear
A patron asked if we could occasionally put up a list of newer videos. I thought that was a great idea, and decided to give it a try. After all, how hard could it be? I remembered that our library catalog lets you sort out videos, so that’s where I began. Just to see if it would work, I simply typed dvd in the keyword search, and limited the search to the Litchfield collection. Incredibly, this simple search was all I needed to do. (I remembered this all as being more difficult). I had 1161 dvd titles. They happened to be sorted with the newest titles first.
I decided to try making a list with a book cart, which lets you save titles and request them all at once. I clicked on the little icon that looks like a shopping cart. I added the 26 newest titles to my cart; unfortunately, you have to click on each title to add it to the cart. I clicked on view saved titles, and then chose “view and export your saved records.” The result is the information in the citation and even by choosing “brief records,” there was more information given than I needed.
The next step was to get that information into something that I could use. This wasn’t difficult, but it took some time to pare the pages and pages of catalog information down to a usable list. I sent the list to the local disk, which put it into Notepad. I copied that into Word and started deleting. Again, this was not a difficult thing to do, but it took some time, so I’m very happy to share the list with you, and may be persuaded to generate another list - in another three months.
Then there was a second new thing I learned this week. (I know, this is getting to be a lot.) Our library webpage is in transition. We’re grateful to the Litchfield Chamber of Commerce for putting a link to the catalog on their webpage of information about the library. Just go to litch.com/library and click on Litchfield Public Library. Our hours, phone number, fax number and email address are all on the page. We’re sorry for the inconvenience caused by this transition.
The next problem to solve was where to post a library article so my fans (just joking) can read it online. I revived my old blog at blogspot, http://janp23things.blogspot.com/ to have a spot to stash articles. Occasionally I update it with pithy comments, but I have learned once again that I’m really not a blogger.
That’s three things, more than enough for a week. See you at the library!
The List of movies with 2011 in the catalog citation:
127 hours
30 for 30.
The best that never was
Bambi
Black swan
Dogtooth
Downton Abbey
Elmo's World: Penguins and friends
Felicity : an American girl adventure
Howl
Inside job
Journey through the shadows
Complete guide to slowpitch softball [book and dvd]
Secretariat
Skin
Tangled
The Fighter
The Social Network
The Ten Commandments
The Wiggles: Let's eat!
Tintinalli's emergency medicine [book and dvd]
Tron: legacy
VeggieTales: 'Twas the night before Easter
Waste land
Women without men
Yogi Bear
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
method to my madness
This was something we had to do for work - librarians call it web 2.0. I did about 8 of the 23 things. I do like the pet cube, though
I was rebellious and never finished. Anyway, I need a place to post articles, so I hope they will fit in this space. I still love my avatar, even after three years.
I was rebellious and never finished. Anyway, I need a place to post articles, so I hope they will fit in this space. I still love my avatar, even after three years.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
I'm Baaaaaack
Time to start again. A lot of water has gone under this particular bridge, but welcome to April of 2011.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Thing 8.
For thing 8, I've tried a couple of applications. One is more pictures of my cute pets, in Picture Trail. I admired other spinning photo cubes in blogs, so just had to try it. Easy to do, and easy to post.
The other application, in slideshare, seems very, very useful. This is the Power Point slide show I used for older elementary students at their spring library visits.
BTW, I linked to the library online catalog for a live demonstration for all of the elementary classes, which was both fun and effective.
The clever animations didn't post in slideshare, but you get the general idea. This was very easy to do. It took a few minutes to upload, but I like the result.
Recently, a group meeting at the library needed to use our projector with their laptop. The two simply wouldn't communicate. I connected the library laptop with the library projector, and got a live internet connection up; fortunately their information was accessible online. I think online is the way to go - computers may crash, disks may be corrupted, but usually the online stuff seems to work.
Interesting thing, thing 8.
The other application, in slideshare, seems very, very useful. This is the Power Point slide show I used for older elementary students at their spring library visits.
BTW, I linked to the library online catalog for a live demonstration for all of the elementary classes, which was both fun and effective.
The clever animations didn't post in slideshare, but you get the general idea. This was very easy to do. It took a few minutes to upload, but I like the result.
Recently, a group meeting at the library needed to use our projector with their laptop. The two simply wouldn't communicate. I connected the library laptop with the library projector, and got a live internet connection up; fortunately their information was accessible online. I think online is the way to go - computers may crash, disks may be corrupted, but usually the online stuff seems to work.
Interesting thing, thing 8.
slide presentation 2008
Thing 7.
Perhaps my place in life is to question everything. After all, I survived the turbulent 60s and smoke-filled 70s. But all of this warm fuzzy, social networking makes me wonder about things like security, identity theft, malicious content of innocuous looking files, etc. An excellent essay by Igor Pankov can be found on his site, which he describes as "Martial Art of Internet Security." We receive his newsletter because Agnitum is our firewall of choice at home.
http://www.securityteacher.com/2008/06/16/the-perils-of-social-networking/
This thing is one of the times my old style rebellion will show its face.
I no longer IM. I used to, but just kind of dropped off the face of the internet awhile ago. (remember, I'm the Internet addict who has unplugged and unwired) We do have Trillian installed on our home laptop, but we seldom use it.
I was intrigued by the idea of the IM'ing librarian, but I wonder if in our small library it is necessary. We work to know our patrons, and they seem to appreciate the personal service our library provides.
I don't text. I have a cell phone, but use it only when I have to. It is usually turned off, and only one person has the number. I choose not to be constantly available.
I looked at the Webinars listed. To use one of them, software had to be installed. Nope. Not doing that. Nothing was available that looked interesting, or interesting that was available. Maybe I can come back to it.
However, I did sign up for 14 free online classes from the UNT through WebJunction. Does that count? The first one I took, Managing Difficult Patrons, was fairly basic, but interesting enough.
One of my tasks at the library is to manage the staff email. I open it, quickly scan the inbox, and just as quickly move the junk to the junk mail folder without reading any of it. Then I open the few emails that need action. We have a few patrons who have asked questions via email, and I answer them immediately. At home, I do the same thing, but sometimes I don't check my home email daily.
I have accounts in yahoo and gmail; I let the hotmail account close. I have my home email account set up so I can access it through a second account. This lets me easily manage my home account from away; there is also a web based interface provided by our internet provider, but it's clunky.
At the library, we often help patrons begin to use email. We also often help them learn to send attachments. We also often help them use a web based portal to check their home accounts; all pretty basic, all useful, but sometimes a challenge to newbies. A link to email the library is available on our library web page, and a few patrons have used it. Most often, they pick up a phone and call.
http://www.securityteacher.com/2008/06/16/the-perils-of-social-networking/
This thing is one of the times my old style rebellion will show its face.
I no longer IM. I used to, but just kind of dropped off the face of the internet awhile ago. (remember, I'm the Internet addict who has unplugged and unwired) We do have Trillian installed on our home laptop, but we seldom use it.
I was intrigued by the idea of the IM'ing librarian, but I wonder if in our small library it is necessary. We work to know our patrons, and they seem to appreciate the personal service our library provides.
I don't text. I have a cell phone, but use it only when I have to. It is usually turned off, and only one person has the number. I choose not to be constantly available.
I looked at the Webinars listed. To use one of them, software had to be installed. Nope. Not doing that. Nothing was available that looked interesting, or interesting that was available. Maybe I can come back to it.
However, I did sign up for 14 free online classes from the UNT through WebJunction. Does that count? The first one I took, Managing Difficult Patrons, was fairly basic, but interesting enough.
One of my tasks at the library is to manage the staff email. I open it, quickly scan the inbox, and just as quickly move the junk to the junk mail folder without reading any of it. Then I open the few emails that need action. We have a few patrons who have asked questions via email, and I answer them immediately. At home, I do the same thing, but sometimes I don't check my home email daily.
I have accounts in yahoo and gmail; I let the hotmail account close. I have my home email account set up so I can access it through a second account. This lets me easily manage my home account from away; there is also a web based interface provided by our internet provider, but it's clunky.
At the library, we often help patrons begin to use email. We also often help them learn to send attachments. We also often help them use a web based portal to check their home accounts; all pretty basic, all useful, but sometimes a challenge to newbies. A link to email the library is available on our library web page, and a few patrons have used it. Most often, they pick up a phone and call.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Thing 6 part 2
In playing around with things at big huge labs, I found a neat little thing to make name or photo badges. It would be easy to make name tags for a special story hour. I could have easily printed nametags for Friday's Story Hour with Harley's picture on them. cute. I tried posting an image, but it kept cutting off. I'm not going to spend more time on Thing 6, so I hope I'm done.
Thing 6
Ok, again the pets are proving to be very useful. They really don't care if their photos are plastered all over the Internet. Again, this proved to be very easy to use. I used images on our computer, rather than trying to work between Flickr and Big Labs. If I'd had time to work on this at the library, I would have used Flickr.
I've seen those library staff trading cards that the college librarians use to introduce themselves to students. Cute idea.
Perhaps I could create trading cards of book characters - but then that opens up the copyright questions. The Internet is still pretty well wide open, but I respect copyright restrictions.
At least if someone asked me about using some kind of image generator, I can say that these resources exist and that they are easy to use.
I've seen those library staff trading cards that the college librarians use to introduce themselves to students. Cute idea.
Perhaps I could create trading cards of book characters - but then that opens up the copyright questions. The Internet is still pretty well wide open, but I respect copyright restrictions.
At least if someone asked me about using some kind of image generator, I can say that these resources exist and that they are easy to use.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Harley scarf sketch
Becca and I used Jasc Paint Shop Pro to change a photo of Harley into a sketch of Harley to use as a coloring page when Harley visits the library on Friday.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Thing 5
Thing 5 involves playing around with photo sharing tools. Some of the "toys" needed a flash download; I am reluctant to download on this shared computer. Others wanted access to all of my flickr account - forget that. Another wanted to store something on the computer. Again, forget that. So I poked around bighugelabs, tried the jigsaw puzzle, made this mosaic. Looked at the lolcats and some others. I like the cube, and may try that, too.
It was slow uploading pictures directly from this computer, so I uploaded some more pictures to Flickr and easily worked from there.
Here is the mosaic from pictures I like best. These were taken by our daughter, Rebecca.
It was slow uploading pictures directly from this computer, so I uploaded some more pictures to Flickr and easily worked from there.
Here is the mosaic from pictures I like best. These were taken by our daughter, Rebecca.
Now we look royal!
Anna and Kristen put on their tiaras, and changed into these royal representatives of our community. I'm proud of them, especially since they are former Story Hour members!
Thing 4, final post
First, I have to say how nice our Children's Department looks! Just have to brag a little. We have nearly 280 children participating in the 2008 Summer Reading program. We offer three story hour programs, one program for students in grades K-5, and a monthly book club for students grades 3-6. We also have weekly visits from local day care providers, and we're enjoying a very busy summer.
These pictures, including the one tagged 23 Things on a Stick, were from a special story hour. Our local festival royalty were guests at Family Story Hour, each reading a book to the dazzled little girls.
I am using Flickr to begin to organize my personal and library photos. I can mark photos with children them private and still have easy access to them. I think I'll use Flickr at the library, and will explore ways to link more pictures to our website. The library has used Picasa, which also is easy to use, etc., but now that I've been introduced to Flickr, I might as well stick with it.
Now that the link is set up, it's ridiculously easy to post pictures. I'm still in the mindset of using URLs and code; clicking on a button, with my blog and Flickr linked like that is just amazing.
Of course, the other part of me, the side that learned a bit of code here and there and develops very, very strong, unique, passwords, is uneasy. All of this openness and sharing is a bit too much. A librarian friend calls this my optimistic negativism, an apt description.
Anyway, I've learned a lot with this Thing, since I have tended to leave photos to another staff member who actually enjoys working with them. I like the online editing tools. I can honestly say that I would not have explored Flickr without this assignment.
These pictures, including the one tagged 23 Things on a Stick, were from a special story hour. Our local festival royalty were guests at Family Story Hour, each reading a book to the dazzled little girls.
I am using Flickr to begin to organize my personal and library photos. I can mark photos with children them private and still have easy access to them. I think I'll use Flickr at the library, and will explore ways to link more pictures to our website. The library has used Picasa, which also is easy to use, etc., but now that I've been introduced to Flickr, I might as well stick with it.
Now that the link is set up, it's ridiculously easy to post pictures. I'm still in the mindset of using URLs and code; clicking on a button, with my blog and Flickr linked like that is just amazing.
Of course, the other part of me, the side that learned a bit of code here and there and develops very, very strong, unique, passwords, is uneasy. All of this openness and sharing is a bit too much. A librarian friend calls this my optimistic negativism, an apt description.
Anyway, I've learned a lot with this Thing, since I have tended to leave photos to another staff member who actually enjoys working with them. I like the online editing tools. I can honestly say that I would not have explored Flickr without this assignment.
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